8. Visitors to our website and social media posts are few and stay briefly.

9. We’ve tried every way to get easy and cheapcontent, and have gotten nothing back except grief.

10. Face it, our written materials are just plain boring to read.

Total (of column points for each box you checked):

10–20: You’re content geniuses! The only time you’ll need an outside writer is when you have more work than your staff can handle. Are you sure you aren’t in the marketing business?

21–30: Not bad! Your in-house writers are on the right track, but an outside consultant could help them do even better. Or, an outside writer could free up their time for tasks they’re really good at.

31–50: You may get straight A’s in every other aspect of business, but your written materials (or lack of such) are screaming “Incompetent!” to the world. Better reconsider your misgivings about investing in an outside writer.

Does your score say you could use professional freelance-writing services?